Divergent Short Story
by FandomeWishes
Summary: A short story about Four's Initiation and his first game of dare. I changed his dare, and it changes the entire event. I hope you enjoy! TW: Abuse


Divergent Short story

 **Hello. This idea just popped into my head, and I decided to write it before I forget. This is about Four as an Initiate. Well, a small part of it anyway. When he was playing Dare. Except his dare is different. This will only be one post. The entire story will be in this one "Chapter" and I will not be adding on to this. I am currently writing two other fanfics. One for Divergent, and one for Wolfblood. Anyway, on with it.**

Four was sitting in the hall alone, just thinking about his choices. Amaar was right. If he ever was going to be truly Dauntless, he couldn't just hole himself up in the training rooms and in his fear simulation. No. He needed to get out and interact with people. Meet people. Find things he likes to do since Abnegation never really let him find that part of himself. Suddenly he hears footsteps approaching, and he looks to see who's coming. It was no other than his instructor Amaar.

"Hey, Four. What are you doing just sitting here?" Amaar asks, still dumbfounded at the way Four acts. So used to the daring, playful banter found in almost every Dauntless citizen.

"Nothing much." Four replied in a way that made him feel like that small boy trapped in Abnegation enclosed in plain grey fabric. Amaar just smirks at him.

"You need to get out more Four. You know that right? How about this, you come with me to an old Dauntless tradition. Usually only dauntless-borns are allowed to go along with members, but you need some friends, and obviously, you haven't taken to your fellow transfers." Amaar exclaims with a small expecting smile on his face.

"Oh… um... Sure… where do I go and at what time?" Four stammers, still shocked he was actually invited somewhere. He was never allowed anywhere in Abnegation.

"6:00. At the platform." Amaar simply walks away after saying this. Leaving Four there to figure out the rest by himself.

At 6:00, Four jogs to the platform to join the other members and initiates milling around waiting for the oncoming train. And soon enough, it is audible as it's lights shine in the dim evening light around the turn. They all start running, and when the time is right, hoist themselves into the open cars. Luckily, this time there's not as much at stake if you miss the car. Unless your ego is more important to you than being factionless.

They all make it in, and Four finds himself sitting next to one of the Dauntless-born initiates. The first jumper. The boy looks at Four and decides to start a conversation.

"Hey. I'm Zeke. Who are you? You aren't Dauntless-born. Otherwise, I'd know you." Zeke asks with a perplexed expression.

"Four. And yeah, I'm a transfer. Amaar had me join him because I spend all my free time in my fear simulation and in the training room. Apparently, I need to be more social." Four replies looking at him. Suddenly glad Zeke never reached for a handshake as the Dauntless normally do.

"Oh yeah! Your the dude with four fears aren't you?" Zeke asks with amazement in his words. Four nods. "That's going to give you an upper hand later on with the final test."

"Yeah, I guess." Zeke and Four continue talking until Amaar does his best to get as many people as quiet as possible.

"Ok, we are going to be playing a game of dare. Rules: You are given a dare, you take a swig of this bottle here, and then you do the dare. And then you give a dare to the next person. Simple enough let's go." He explains holding up a big flask filled with what Four can only guess is alcohol of some sort.

The flask gets passed around and many dares are given. They go from running into Erudite and mooning them, to scaling the Ferris wheel. He could never stomach that one. Finally, it's his turn. Some older Dauntless girl with tattoos scattered around her arm, and a couple of piercings comes up with his dare, And if he thought to scale the Ferris wheel was bad, this just topped it all.

"I dare you… hm….. Oh! I dare you to visit your parents in your old faction. Will they be up at this time?" She says. Obviously, tipsy from the alcohol, and getting closer to the stage if being drunk with every passing minute.

Shock is the only thing Four feels. Completely frozen. Amaar tries to prevent it by saying that people might see him as a faction traitor if he was seen. And all these excuses as to why he shouldn't go. However, to no prevail. Four still hasn't answered, and the shock is replaced by extreme fear.

Slowly, he comes to terms and takes a quick sip of the burning liquid. The burning that seemed so unbearable the other day when someone pressured him to try it, seems unnoticeable now with bigger things on his mind.

Nobody knows where Four came from, except for Amaar of course, so he was instructed to just jump when they made it to his old faction.

Of course, time passes. They pass candor, and now they begin to assume he is from Erudite. They pass Erudite, and now they begin to call him a chicken for not following through with the dare.

Abnegation approaches, and everyone stopped caring and moved on to talking about something else. Still thinking Four had given up and chickened out. Unannounced, he stood up as he noticed the plain, uniform grey houses approaching. Watched as they started to pass by, and just jumped. He saw the looks of shock before they had time to comprehend and scramble out after him, not landing as gracefully as they would've if he had told them they'd be jumping soon.

He stayed silent as he walked toward his old home full of terrible memories. As he walked through the streets, others ran ahead and started pointing to houses trying to figure out which one was his since they all looked the same. People made amazed and dumbfounded remarks about how they would never be able to find their house in this maze.

He stopped suddenly as he saw his old home. He walked carefully in front of it and stood back just looking at it. Memories filling his head. He wasn't sure he could do it until one of his mom popped up. The one of her giving him the blue sculpture. The one that he left on his nightstand as an act of rebellion. This memory gave him strength, as he told the others to hide, and walked up, and gave a loud knock. He immediately shrunk back as he waited for his punishment. After a moment, Marcus opened the door and yanked him inside just as a small cry escaped Four's mouth. Marcus did not see the other Dauntless otherwise he would've put on an act of a caring father. But he did not.

The door was slammed shut, and immediately the yelling began.

"I DID NOT RAISE A SELFISH SON! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THIS! EVERYTHING I DID WAS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!" Marcus yelled. The belt already in his hands. Four shrank back into the tightest ball he could as he took the beating. Fear coursing through him. The feeling of helplessness. He didn't know what to do. His mother flashed in his memories, and again it gave him courage. He slowly unraveled and stood up, recoiling at every whip. When he finally was stood up straight, Marcus punched him in the face again and again. Until Four was back into the little scrawny defenseless kid that had lived in this household for 16 years. He couldn't do anything. After what seemed an eternity of a beating, but what he knew was no more than five minutes, Amaar and Zeke burst through the door after picking the lock, which must have been the reason for the delay. Zeke charged at Marcus, while Amaar helped Four recover as best he could before realizing he needed to fight as well.

Four was still in fear and shock. He only just realized Zeke and Amaar were there when he looked at the open door with a crowd of Dauntless crowded around. Knowing that they couldn't all help or it would get confusing. And Marcus only needed two people to knock him back. But all he could think about was that open door. Escape. And before anyone really realized, Four dashed out and just ran. The pain worsened from the belt, and there was blood everywhere. He needed to rest. He was near the train tracks when he just collapsed. His legs stinging where the belt wrapped around them leaving welts and raw skin. He sat there and cried, resting his head on his knees even though it burned a little. He just wanted to hide. Didn't want to be found. Didn't want to bear the shame from the others when he just sat there and did nothing. Wasn't that the whole point of wasting away the hours in the training room? Running through his fears every day? So he could defend himself against the one person he was afraid of besides himself.

He heard footsteps running towards him, but he didn't dare look up. He felt a touch on his shoulder and flinched and scrammed before he realized it was Shauna, a girl he met on the ride her and a friend of Zeke's. She was cool, but Four was in no mood to talk. Someone was with her. She looked younger but very similar. Shauna mentioned having a little sister, so maybe this was her.

"Go get the others. Especially Amaar and Zeke," Shauna demanded, looking at her sister. The girl ran off in the direction they came.

Shauna put her hand on his back without thinking, and again he flinched and recoiled from the touch, still not daring to look at her.

"Oh my gosh! I'm an idiot! Sorry!" She apologized quickly as she realized the mistake she had made.

Four does nothing in response but bury his head back into his knees and continue shaking with fear. Then, out of control and unexpectedly, he begins crying with pain and fear. Shauna is comforting Four doing her best to refrain from touching him. After some talking, the tears stop, and Four starts to regain his composure. He came out of his hiding position and started talking to Shauna. She was nice to talk to. Always said the right things.

"They're going to laugh at me. I couldn't do anything. I was a coward." He exclaimed with a trembling voice

"What? No. Trust me. They don't think you were a coward. They were shaking. You were extremely brave even going there. And for what? A stupid dare? I don't think you were proving anything to them. You wanted to prove something to yourself didn't you?" She replies in a soothing voice. All Fur does is nod, his body still quaking.

After more coaxing, they finally stand up to try and find the others, coming to the conclusion they got lost. This amuses Four a bit and brings a slight, hardly noticeable smile to his face. But Shauna notices it.

"See, there's a smile! Not a big one, but I did better than I thought I would at calming you down. Everyone doubted me. Said I was too harsh to calm anyone or anything down. Only rile them up." She jokes around, trying to make the situation even better. And she succeeds, bringing a slightly bigger smile to Four's face, but his body still shaking.

After about 2 minutes of walking and Four leading the way, the others are found. Zeke, of course, doesn't think as he runs over to Four engulfing him in a hug just after Amaar calls out to him, but it was too late.

Panic sets over Four as he stiffens up at the touch and the feeling of being trapped, frozen in fear again. Shauna quickly takes action and pulls Zeke off of him and only just starts to yell at him before deciding otherwise.

As soon as Four was released, he staggered backward bracing himself for an invisible threat so familiar. He looks around slightly panicked and his breaths become shaky once again. He starts shaking like crazy again, but not as bad as before. Shauna is already at his side calming him down. He composes himself much quicker this time and quickly scans the crowd, his posture still hunched slightly trying to hide from everyone. Shauna just realizes the extent of his injuries as the blood glints in the low light given off by the moon.

"Oh my gosh look at you! Ok, we are going home now and getting you cleaned up. Come on, let's get away from this and go somewhere better." Shauna's says and waves at the crowd to follow her. But then she turns to Four, "So…. how exactly DO we get home from here?"

He smiles a small smile, but it's enough to bring a new light in Shauna's eyes. "Come." Is all he can muster without the shakiness in his voice becoming too obvious, but even in that one word, it can still be detected.

Jumping on the train was a bit harder with shaking legs and fresh wounds covering Four's body, but he still managed. During the ride, Zeke and the girl who assigned Four the dare came to apologize to Four. Amaar joined Shauna and Four on the floor in the back corner of the car, while Zeke sat nearby, but elsewhere, looking guilty and shameful for what he had done. He truly was sorry. That's why he looked ecstatic when he glanced back at the group in the corner for the hundredth time, he saw Four give a small nod allowing him to join them.

From then on, the Dauntless that played dare with Four never looked at him the same way. They always praised him for his bravery, but there was always a hint of pity in their eyes. Nobody called him a coward or teased him. Not like he had thought. They congratulated him for all he had overcome when he was ranked first at the end of Initiation. Nobody was surprised he had placed first.

Dauntless was the perfect haven. He had chosen correctly. His fear never goes away, and he always wakes up at night sweaty from a nightmare flashback to every time Marcus beat him. He thought of the blue sculpture, and that always calmed him down some, but if that didn't work, Shauna somehow always knew when she was needed, even if no one informed her. She just came down always knowing what to do. It took a lot of time to convince Four even the slightest that he wasn't a coward and he was worth something, but they all knew he would never have that self-confidence everyone else in Dauntless took pride in. But that was all right. He found a place, and he found a way around his fear. He was free.

 **Ok. I hope you enjoyed it! About 2,500 words. I am quite happy with how it turned out, it could be better, but oh well. I still need to get back into the swing of writing again. Dangit. Just checked and I realized I spelled Amar's name wrong. NOO! You will just have to suffer. Also, I know some of these events have been altered, but that's fanfiction for you! Bye!**


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